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KANSAS-LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. WILLIA 



A. HO.WARD, 



OF M IC H IG A 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATiVES. I^A£^ 1J3^ 1858 



•^•* 




'Die House being in tiie Comndttec of the Wliole on the 
stiite of the Union — 

Mr. HOWARD said: 

Mr. Chairman: I have long been of the opin- 
ion that speech-tnaking was one of the evils in 
this body. I believe that more attention to the 
details of business, and less to speech-making, 
would greatly subserve the public interests. Act- 
ing on this principle, I served through the three 
sessions of the Thirty-Fourth Congress without 
occupying any portion of the time of the Flouse 
except for explanation, and then never for per- 
sonal explanation. If I consulted my own feel- 
ings I should still pursue that policy; but, Mr. 
Chairman, I need scarcely say that a question is 
pending before this House v.'hich demands the 
most careful consideration and the most prudent 
action at our hands. 

The fact that certain documents purporting to 
be a constitution for Kansas, and asking admis- 
sion for her into this Union, have been recently 
presented to Congress, has disclosed a division of 
the Democratic party on this floor, and elsewhere, 
which was not anticipated; and I cannot but con- 
clude that there must be some imperative reason 
controlling this division, and throwing the sup- 
porters of the present Administration into a mi- 
nority in this House. 

Under ordinary circumstances, it might have 
been expected that Kansas, applying here for ad- 
mission as a State under a constitution with or 
without slavery, would have received an affirma- 
tive response by a fair majority vote of this body; 
and although I need not say what would have 
been mi/ course On such a supposition, yet it is but 
fair to acknowledge, what I believe to be the truth, 
that every northern Democrat in this Hall would 
have stood honestly pledged to support such a 
measure, and his constituents would have ex- '< 
pectedhim to vote for it; and I have no doubt that 
each of them would have redeemed his pledge in 
good faith. Politically, they are my enemies; and | 
I am theirs. I have never asked nor received po- . 



I litical favors at their hands; nor do T now a.sk or 
I expect such from t?iem. I make this statement 
in justice to them, and especially as due to the 
Democracy of my State, who are without a Rep- 
i resentative on this floor. Open dealing demands 
I that they should not be misapprehended or mis- 
I stated with my consent. It has been aptly said 
, that one portion of the Democratic party in thi.s 
contest stands upon the "Cincinnati platform," 
I but a mu;;h larger portion stand upon the " Cin- 
i cinnati Directory." Candor requires me to say 
'• much the largest portion of the Democracy of my 
1 State stands upon the platform. 
I 5^ow, sir, without further preliminary, I pro 
pose to examine the only tv/o questions in the 
premises which ought to be settled in order to de- 
itermine our proper course in relation to this sub- 
j ject. These two questions are: 

1. Is Kansas properly here asking for admis- 
sion into the Union under the Lecorapton consti- 
; tution ? 

j 2. Does this Leconipton constitution embody 
the fairly expressed, unbiased will of a majority 
of the legal voters of Kansas? 
, If these tv/o questions can be satisfactorily an- 
swered in the affirmative, then there should be an 
end of all strife. But if the propositions implied 
j in these questions be not true, then there is an 
j end of all power and of all right on the part of 
' Congress in the premises. 

Nothing can be clearer than that the admission 

; of a State into the Union is in the nature of a 

' contract, the parties to which are the United States 

and the inchoate State. There can be no contract 

without competent contracting parties; and if 

Kansas be not legally here to ask for or consent 

; to the proposed admission, then such admission 

on our part would be not only intervention, but 

; oppression. 

I Sir, I deny that Kansas is properly here at all 
: asking admission. The Lecompton contrivance, 
which is the only ground or pretense on which 
such admission is now urged, is the offspring of 
the frauds and trickery of a small number of 



to&. 



'HS4 



reckless men, whom the people of Kansas regard 
as usurpers: and the presentation of it here is an 
act of rebellion against the laws of the Territory, 
and the authority of the United States. The con- 
vention that framed it was the creature of a Legis- 
lature brought into existe'nce by armed interven- 
tion, by invasion, and bv/VioIence — a total sub- 
version of the orgr.nidRact, and a clear violation 
of the Federal Constitotion. 

This Legislature was chosen at an election in 
the Territory, at which 6',331 votes were polled. 
The whole Territory was divided into eighteen 
election districts, v/hich^were formed into ten 
council districts and thB'teen representative dis- 
tricts. An invasion took place at the time of this 
election, which extended totevery council district, 
to every representative distVict except one, and 
to every election district but'thre?. By the poll- 
books and the census rolls, on file in the office of 
the Secretary of the Territory, it appears, that of 
the whole 6,331 votes polled at this election, 898 
of them only were cast by residents of the Terri- 
tory, and 5,433 by non-residents. As about three 
weeks elapsed belv/een the tjjTie of the comple- 
tion of the census and the election, some trifling 
changes may have taken place. As navigation was 
scarcely opened, the changes from immigration 
could not have exceeded a hundred. I feel au- 
thorized to say, the whole number of legal votes 
cast could not have exceeded a thousand. Whence 
came the other votes.' These votes were given 
by the armed invaders,after they had first driven 
from the polls, by threats and by violence, more 
ttian two thirds of the legal voters, whose#iames 
appear on the census rolls. 

So much for the documentary evidence on file 
in the Territory. As to who these invaders were, 
I remark, it was proved before the committee, of 
v/hich I was a member, by the testimony of three 
hundred and twenty-six witnesses, selected mainly 
from amongst residents of Kansas and Missouri, 
of every shade of political opinion, and some (ff 
them of the highest respectability, that 4,921 of 
them came from Missouri for the express purpose 
of carrying the election; that the invasion was 
neither accidental nor unorganized. It was de- 
liberately formed, thoroughly organized, and ex- 
tended to every council district, and to every rep- 
resentative district except one, for the express 
Crpose of carrying, in both branches, the entire 
•gislature that was to give form and character 
to the institutions of the Territory, and to provide 
the means of controlling all succeeding Legisla- 



The organization of companies, the enlistnient 
of men, and the payment of expenses, were pro- 
moted, if not wholly accomplished, by means of 
clubs or societies formed in Missouri, which met 
in secret, and were bound by certain oaths or ob- 
ligations to use all lawful means in their power to 
make Kansas a slave Slate. Of course, they them- 
selves were to be the judges of what was lawful in 
the premises. And the invasion itself furnished 
the first illustration of what, in their view, was 
lawful. 

At the time the v/itnesses were examined before 
the committee, I have reason to believe, and do 
believe, that not one of them knew whether a com- 
parison of the names on the census rolls and the 
poll lists was ever to be made; or if made, whether 
or not the comparison woultl furnish corrobora- 



tion or contradiction of^their statements. Nor did 
the committee, at that time, know what the com- 
parison would develop. But its completion not 
only confirmed, beyond all controversy, the truth- 
fulness of the v/itnesses, but established the fact, 
by this unerring test, that the fraudulent votes 
were some four hundred more than the parol testi- 
mony made them. The Lecompton convention 
was called into existence by the act of a Legisla- 
ture, one branch of which was elected by those 
invaders at that time; the other branch was the 
offspring of its unjust apportionment and its ille- 
gal and unconstitutional test-oaths, and of new 
frauds. 

But it is said that this Legislature had been rec- 
ognized by the President and by both branches of 
Congress. This is not true in fact, nor is any 
recognition possible which could at all legalize 
these frauds. As this invasion was in direct vio- 
lation of the organic act and the whole scope and 
spirit of the constitution, a total subversion of 
the law organizing the territorial government, no 
recognition could legalize this subversion or over- 
throw of the organic act, unless the recognition 
was equivalent to the repeal of the organic act. 
And if the recognition amounted to a repeal of 
the organic act, in whole or in such parts as pro- 
vided for a Legislature, then it follows that the 
Legislature could not exist, for the law author- 
izing it is supposed to be repealed by the force of 
the recognition. The truth is, it is absurd to talk 
about recognizing wholesale frauds that amount 
to a complete overthrow of the organic act. It is 
a contradiction in terms. And the President might 
as well have undertaken to enlighten his clerical 
correspondents upon the subject of recognizing 
piracy, robbery, or murder, as the robbery of the 
people of Kansas of their rights by the subver- 
sion of the Kansas-Nebraska act. The recogni- 
tion might make its authors " accessories after 
the fact," but could not at all change the nature 
of the crime or disprove its existence. 

But, as a matter of fact, this House never in any 
manner recognized, or attempted to recognize, the 
Legislature of the 30th March, 1855, but in sev- 
eral different ways, at different times, treated it 
and its acts as nullities, as was fully shown the 
other day by my friend from Ohio, [.Vlr. Suer- 
MAN,] who said: 

" Tlie attention of the House was early drawn to this sub- 
ject. Under a resolution of the House, adopted on the 19th 
of March, 18.'56, a committee was sent to Kansas especially 
charged to examine 'in regard to any fraud or force at- 
tempted or practiced in reference to any of the elections 
which have taken place in said Territory, eitlier under the 
law organizing said Territory, or under any prctenrled law 
which may he alleged to have taken efiect therein since.' 
Upon the report of this committee, the bill to admit Kansas 
as a State under the Topeka constitution, already referred 
to, and which was based upon the position that the acts of 
tlie Legislative Assembly were null and void, passed this 
House. On the 27th of July, 1856, this Housi', by the de- 
cided vote of 88 yeas to 74 nays, passed the bill, commonly 
known as Bunn's bill, which denied the validity of the Le- 
gislature ; declared their acts void ; provided ior the di^- 
missal of all prosecutions under them ; and forbid any pros- 
eculion fur any violation or disregard of the enaelments of 
that body at any time. This was the deliberate judgment 
of the House and was afterwards constantly adhered lo. 
The House, by a great number of votes, refused to make 
any appropriation for the compensation and mileage of this 
Lcgisiaiive Assembly. Tliis was done on the 14th of Au- 
gust, 1856, by the vote of 90 yeas to 97 nays, and was per- 
sisted in until the Senate yielded, and the appropriation for 
that purpose was stricken from the legislative apiiropriation 
bill. I defy gentlemen to point me out any law, anywhere. 



by which the last Congrpss authorized the payment of money 
to the first Kansas Le<i;islature. It is true that, in the last 
session, in the hill making appropriations for the ordinary 
legislative, exeoulive, and judicial expenses of the Govern- 
ment for the year t- ndiha .Inne 30, 1858, the ordinary appro- 
priation was made for the expenses of the Kansas Legisla- 
ture; but, sir, this money could not be used, without a clear 
violation of law, to pay the expenses of the bogus Legisla- 
ture. TliH appropriation was expressly for the year com- 
mencing July 1, 1857, and ending June 30, 1858. It was for 
Uif! Legislature to he convened and held between those 
dates. Such a Legislature was elected, in October last, 
under the organic law, and is the one now in session. 

'•Months before this appropriation cnmmenced to run, 
the bogu-i Li^gislature had adjourned, and had only sought 
to propagite itself through a constitutional convention. 
And if, sir, the President has diverted the appropriation for 
the Legislative Assembly for the current year, to pay the 
e.\penses of the old, rejected, dishonored body, whose fonc- 
tions had ceased before the current year commenced, he 
lias done it in clv^ar violation of law, and, whatever may be 
our party predilections, should be impeached by this House. 

'' Sir, this appropriation for a Legislative Assembly in 
Kansas, for the current year ending June 30, 18.58, during 
which the illegal Legislature was not in session, and the 
steady refusal of this House, finally concurred in by the 
Senate, to appropriate money for the year during which it 
was in session, instead of being construed into a recogni- 
tion of that body, is a decision of both branches of Congress 
against its validity. 

" Nor can the admission of General Whitfield, at the last 
session, as a Delegate, be construed into a recognition of 
that Legislature. At the first session, both he and Gov- 
ernor Keeder were rejected, because neither was elected 
under valid law, and the House could not determine which 
received the greater number of legal votes. At an election 
ill October, 1858, to fill the acknowledged vacancy, no one 
was voted for but General Whitfield, and no one appeared 
to claim the seat but him. Under these circumstances, 
without considering whether the law under which he was 
elected was valid or invalid, he might be admitted ; and his 
admission would raise no implication for or against the law. 

•' But, sir. tin; last House did not leave this question to im- 
plication. On the 17th day of February, 1857, it passed, hy 
the decided vote of 98 yeas to 79 nays, a hill for the relief 
of the people of Kansas, introduced by Mr. Grow; the pre- 
amble of this liill was agreed to hy a vote of 95 yeas to 68 
nays. To show the clear, decided repudiation by the Hcnise 
of.this legislation, I will read the preamble and firstsection: 

"'Whereasthe Presidentof the United States transmitted 
to the House, by message, a printed pamphlet purporting to 
be the laws of the Territory of Kansas, passed at Shawnee 
Mission, in said Territory : and whereas unjust and unwar- 
ranted test oaths are prescribed by said laws as a qualifi- 
cation lor voting or holding office in said Territory ; and 
whereas the committeeof investigation, sent by the House 
to Kansas, report that said Lei/islature was not elected hy 
the legal voters of Kansas, but was forced upon them by 
non-residents, in violation of the organic act of the Terri 
tory, and having thus usurped legislative power, it enacted 
cruel and oppressive laws : Therefore, 

'• ' Be it ciinrlcd hy the Seiuite and House ofReiireseniatives 
of the Unitfd States of^imerica in Congress assemhlcd, That 
ail rules or regulations purporting to be laws, or in the form 
of law, adopted at Shawnee Mission, in the Territory of 
Kansas, by a body of men claiming to be the Legislative 
Assembly of said Territory, and all acts and proceedings 
whatsoever of said Assembly, are hereby declared invalid, 
and of no binding force or effect.' 

"This bill passed the House but a little more than two 
weeks before the adjournment, when the President took 
the oath of office. It was never reconsidered, but was the 
final and deliberate judgment of the House. How the Pres- 
ident could, in the face of this act, assume that Congress, 
of which the House is </ie important part, had recognized 
this Legislature in different enactments, is beyond my com- 
prehension. Sir, I call upon the friends of the President to 
make good this bold assertion, or the whole string of tech- 
nicalities by which he supports the Lecompton constitution 
is worse than a broken reed." 

We see, therefofe, that the •' Lecompton consti- 
tution," bftins, as it was, the creature of usurp- 
ation, the cliild ofan " illegal despotism," was as 
destitute of all rightful authority in its origin, as 
il is of popular favor in its maturity. Illegitimate 
in its origin, it is now in its development, by at 
least four fifths of those v/ho were expected to 



" father it, " loathed and feared, shunned and 
scorned. 

In this connection, I wish to enter my most 
solemn protest against any such recognition ever 
being established as a precedent. If this should 
ever become the settled doctrine of this Govern- 
ment, it would not only destroy slavery in all the 
States, but all local control of domestic institu- 
tions of every kind; crush out and destroy every 
vestige of " State Rights," and speedily destroy 
the Union itself. For if the people of JVlissouri 
can organize an invading force of five thousand 
men, arm them, and march them into Kansas, dis- 
tribute them through all the districts, and of the 
two thousand nine hundred and five legal voters 
of the Territory, drive from the polls all except 
eight hundred and ninety-eight, and by means of 
more than five thousand illegal votes thus dis- 
tributed, elect the entire Legislature, in both its 
branches, in spite of the people or their organic 
law, then, when this Legislature, so elected, as- 
sembles and adopts one hundred and fifty-four 
chapters of the statutes of Missouri, without so 
much as dotting one i or crossing one t, but at- 
tempting to localize and apply this wholesale 
spurious legislation, by gravely enacting that, 
" wherever the words ' State of iVIissouri' occur 
in these chapters, it shall be understood to mean 
'Territory of Kansas;' " and then coimplete this 
Kansas (.') code by a series of acts that would 
shame the worst despot that ever walked the face 
of the earth — one of which acts made it a felony, 
punishable in the penitentiary, for the people ti) 
say, write, or print, what the organic act said 
they might do; and when the people protest and 
remonstrate against this wholesale robbery of 
their rights, this total subversion of the organic 
law, utterly denying the legality of this mon- 
strous usurpation, eloquently demanding of the 
President, by every consideration of pairiotie 
duty, by every tie that binds good men to their 
country, by all the fearful sanctions of his oath of 
office, to overthrow this monster of fraud and vio- 
lence, and restore their rights, and " leave them 
perfectly free to form and regulate their own do- 
mestic institutions in their own way, subject only 
to the Constitution of the United States;" if the 
President, with the documentary evidence on file 
in the office of the Secretary of the Territory, 
showing that of the whole six thousand three 
hundred and thirty-one votes, six sevenths of them 
were given by non-residents, in violation of the 
organic act, which he was sworn to execute; I 
say, if the President, either because the fear of the 
then prospective Cincinnati convention was be- 
fore his eyes, or for any other reason, not only 
refuse all ?-e/ie/, but, upon the demand of the usurp- 
ers and their friends, stretch forth his arm and use 
the military power of the Government to compel 
the people to submit to the pretended laws thua 
imposed upon them, thus converting the Array 
into a contemptible /)osse for 6og-tts constables; and 
if this is to become the established doctrine, the 
ruling policy, the approved action, of Democrafic 
(?) administrations, why may not the people of 
Illinois, or any other free State, organize invading 
forcesofherowncitizons; distribute them atall the 
voting preciftcts in Missouri; choose a Legisla- 
ture for her; enact Illinois laws for her, particu- 
larly those prohibiting slavery; and then, if the 
people of Missouri are in any wise factious, call 



upon the Executive to follow the precedent; to 
declare the people of Missouri rebels, and put 
them down, find compel submission to the iatcs(?) 
by the wholo power of the Government. 

Sir, of all the domestic institutions of this coun- 
try, none are more dependent for safety upon the 
strict adherence to Stale lights than slavery. Let 
its friends beware how they sanction a precedent 
that is subversive of all local organic laws. If 
you do not wish to plant thorns in the dying pil- 
low of slavery, let no excitement, no hope of tem- 
porary advantage, lead you to abandon the great 
anchor of all your well-grounded hopes. Let no 
man deceive himself upon this most vital point. 
Whosoeveracknowledges the legality of this Le- 
compton swindle of this monstrous usurpation, 
gives his sanction to this precedent, and, Haman- 
like, is erecting the gallows upon which, at no 
distant day, he may 

•' Fef'l tlie halter draw 
With i>oor opinion of the law." 

Away, then, with this illegilimate Lecompton 
bantling! this Cunningham baby ! Kansas is not 
here, either asking or consenting to admission 
under this detestable fraud. 

But even if we should, for the sake of the argu- 
ment, admit the validity of the lav/ authorizing 
the Lecompton convention by conceding the legal 
existence of the bogus Legislature, still its organ- j 
ization was fraudulent and in utter violation of j 
the pretended law authorizing it. If it be ad- J 
niitted that this political Burdell might have been ; 
llie father of such a child, still it is as clear as the 
noon-daj' sun that it was never born of its pre- 
tended mother, but was a bantling from the low- j 
est ranks of fraud, vice, and usurpation. 

Mr. Walker, in speaking on that subject, says: 
" That convention had vital, not tochnioal, defects in the 
very sub.-^iance of its organization under the territorial law, 
which could only be cured, in my judsment — as set forth in | 
my inaii2ur;il and other addresses — hy the submission of the 
oonslitution Cor ratincation or rejection by the people. On 
reference to the territorial law under which the convention 
was assenililcd, ihirly-fonr reijul.nly-nrganized counties 
were named as election districts for delegates to the con- 
vention. In each and all of these counties it was required 
by law that a census should he taken, and the voters regis- 
tered ; and when this was completed, the delegates to the 
convenlitm s;honld bo apportioned accordingly. In nineteen 
of these counties there was no censns, and therefore there 
conUl be no such apportionment lUv.re of delegates based 
upon such cen.sfis. And in fifteen of these counties there 
was no registry of voters. 

'•These fifteen counties, including many of the oldest 
organized counties of the Territory, were entirely disfran- 
chised, and did notcive.and (l>y nofaultoftheirown) could 
not give a solitary vote for delegates to the convention.-' 

Mr. Stanton, the acting -Governor of Kansas, 
under whom this registry was made, and this 
census taken, says: 

"There are thirty eight counties, genilen(en,in the Ter- 
ritory of Ivansas, including the dislantcouuty of Arapahoe. 
In liineleeii of those counties an iniperlect register was 
obtained, giving a vote of nine thousand two hundred and 
fifty-one. In tiie other nineteen counties there was no cen- 
sus and no registration. = ' 

That is, nineteen thirty-fourths of the districts 
were left out altogether from the very basis of 
representation. 

If we concede that the citizens who withheld 
their votes nt the election for delegates, after the 
apportionment was made, were to blaine, suppose 
they were concluded by the action of those who 
did vote, so far as delegates for their respective 
districts were concerned — had they all voted, 



they might, perhaps, have elected some other 
sixty men for delegates, instead of the sixty who 
were returned — still, the radical defects of the 
apportionment remain. The law requires the cen- 
sus of the thirty-four counties as the basis of ap- 
portionment; the apportionment was made on 
fifteen of thirty-four counties only. Could this 
be legal .' Is not the error fundamental, vital ? 
Suppose, instead of taking the census of all the 
States in 1860, (and there will probably be thirty- 
four States at that time,) we leave out nineteen 
States, and make the returns from the other fif- 
teen States the basis of apportionment for the 
members of this body: would it be legal.' We 
shall probably have a Republican Administration 
at that time; and we would, of course, leave out 
the fifteen southern'States,and then, to make the 
n u in ber, four of the smallest of the northern States. 
If the injustice of the proceedintj excited remon- 
strance, we naight reply that the fifteen States em- 
braced a large majority of all the people; that the 
other nineteen States were small ones, compar- 
atively: and that the southern States were so hos- 
tile to " Republicans" that " it was unsafe for the 
officers to go there to' take a census." As the 
"South" sometimes threatens to dissolve th(r 
" Union," v,-e consider them turbulent and rebel- 
lious; and the fact that they were without rejire- 
sentation was no great matter. And, sir. what 
would you think of us if, when compelled to ad- 
mit that the exclusion of the nineteen States \vas 
unjust and unfair, we should insist it was " legal," 
and you were " estopped "from denying it r This 
is precisely the case in Kansas, except that there 
the outrage has been committed by a smsll mi- 
nority, instead of being done by a majority, as 
in the supposed case of the States. The law of 
Kansas made thirty-four counties the basis of rep- 
resentation, but the usurpers placed it on fifteen 
only, and " without any fault of the people;" and 
yet the cry of " legality," " technicality," and 
" regularity," is echoed through this Hall by 
southern Representatives and their northern al- 
lies. 

In nine of the disfranchised counties in which 
no census was taken, ],fj24 votes were caslagains! 
the constitution, as certified by Denver: 

IVith }VUhout. 
Counties. ^3;;aiiist. 

Allen 192 

Anderson 177 

Breckinridge 191 

Coflee 463 

Davis 21 

Franklin 204 

Madison 40 

Kichardson 177 

Woodson 50 



The whole number of votes given for all the 
delegates to the Lecompton convention was be- 
tween seventeen and eighteen hundred; but the 
number cast for those members who signed tlie 
constitution could not have exceeded one thou- 
sand. And yet 1,624, without any fault of their 
own, were excluded from voting in nine of the 
nineteen disfranchised counties. From the other 
disfranchised counties I have no returns. 

As has been fully shown by the distinguished 
Senator from Illinois, by Governor Walker, Mr. 
Secretary Stanton, and others, the law directed 



slavery. 


slaverij. 


Total. 


1 


4 


196 


- 


- 


177 


- 


- 


191 


- 


4 


•1(57 




- 


21 


_ 


_ 


304 


- 


- 


4(1 


- 


1 


178 


- 


- 


30 



a census to be taken in all the counties, and a 
registration to he made of all the legal voters, by- 
officers ajipointed for the purpose, over whose ap- 
pointment tlie people could have no control. This 
census was imjierfectly taken in on-j half of the 
counties, and not taken, or attempted to be taken 
at all, in the other counties. The registration of 
qualified voters was not attempted in fifteen coun- 
ties, and imperfectly, even fraudulently done, in 
the other counties. Admit, if you please, that 
the census and enrollment were more imperfect in 
these counties from tiie hostility of a portion of 
the people to the whole scheme: still the fact re- 
mains that nineteen counties were partially and 
fifteen counties wholly disfranchised in utter vio- 
lation of the law authorizing the convention, and, 
as Governor Walker well says, " without any 
fault of the people." Grant, if you please, for the 
sake of the argument, that the people did wrong 
in not voting for delegates in the counties where 
they could: still the fact remains that these other 
counties were disfranchised without any fault of 
their own, and this in violation of the pretended 
law of the convention's existence. Every attempt 
made by these counties to exercise their rights 
was defeated by the rejection of the members 
which they did elect, for the verj^ reason that no 
registry had been made for them. Nine of these 
nineteen disfranchised counties have since, at an 
election authorized by the Territorial Legislature, 
admitted to have been fairly elected in October 
last, and recognized by the President in his in- 
structions to Governor Denver, cast nearly as 
many votes against the constitution as were cast in 
the whole I'erritory for the delegates who framed 
it. Many of the delegates elected were chosen with 
the distinct understanding, nay, under the writ- ' 
ten pledge, that the constitution to be framed, not ; 
the slavery clause under the constitution, but the j 
coristitution itself, should be submitted to the 
whole people for their acceptance or rejection. 
Without this pledge they could not have been 
elected. But when their work is completed they ! 
refuse to submit it to the vote of the people, be- i 
cause they would vote it down — the very reason 
that makes submission imperative. But the Pres- 
ident comes to the rescue by giving us to under- 
stand that the people would have voted it down 
withoutreference to its merits.'' Sir, who made him 
the judge of the reasons that control the votes of 
freemen .' Why should our Chief Magistrate take | 
this step in advance of the worsttyranny that ever | 
existed.' He tells us it is impossible for aniT-peo^l 
pie to proceed more regularly in the formation of 
a constitution than has been done in Kansas. Sir, 
I submit, it. is impossible for proceedings to be | 
more irre^jular or unfair; impossible that the sub- \ 
version of the laws and the disregard of the pop- I 
ular will in any Territory could be more complete, j 
And whatever may be ouraction, v/hether we vote 
for or against this Lecompton-Cunningham con- | 
trivance, it will stand for all time, whenever jus- ; 
tice and fair dealing, liberty and truth, shall be | 
respected as the very synonym of fraud and trick- ! 
ery, of usurpation and violence; in short, of every I 
element of tyranny. 

The President thinks we mistake the state of i 
affairs in Kansas. The people are not divided : 
into political parties simply striving for the mas- J 
tery, but a portion of them are in rebellion against 
the laws. I give the substance of his remarks ' 



without having his language before me. Sir, if 
the President had characterized the invasion of 
30th March, which, by the aid of a small minor- 
ity — not over six hundred of the two thousand 
nine hundred and five legal voters of the Territory 
— usurped the government and trampled the or- 
ganic law under their feet, and all the outrages 
traceable directly to this ovcrthiow of the oro-anic 
act of the Territory, as rebellion, we might, for 
once, have conceded that he was right. But I 
deny that resistance to a subversion of the law is 
rebellion against the law. Resistance to the over- 
throv/ of the law is in the highest sense obedience 
to the law. And let the Administration beware, 
lest by their aid and comfort to usurpers they be 
found violaters of the law. Resistance to usurp- 
ers is obedience to law ! Let us not be diverted 
from the real question. Away with all side issues. 
Let us hear no more about Kansas being rejected 
simply becau.se the Lecompton constitution rec- 
ognizes slavery. Sir, I repeat, Kansas is not here 
asking admission v/ith or without slavery. This 
is not her act and deed. Its presentation here is 
in direct opposition to the territorial authority 
established by Congress, and is rebellion. 

Upon the second branch of this subject I 
scarcely need detain the committee one moment. 
So far from reflecting the will of the people, this 
whole scheme is dete.ned, loathed , and scorned by 
at least four fifths of all the legal voters in the 
Territory. Its friends were obliged to violate 
their solemn written pledges to submit it to the 
people for ratification or rejection, to save it from 
oblivion. And attempts are made to give reasons 
why the most unreasonable majority would have 
rejected it. From a careful examination of the 
facts, aided by some knowledge of the Territory 
and its people, it is my deliberate judgment that 
there are not two thousand five hundred legal 
voters in the Territory who approve of this pre- 
tended constitution. Of all the voteS cast or re- 
turned on the 21st of December, in my opinion 
at least four thousand of them were fraudulent. 
Of one thing I am certain. I can demonstrate 
beyond all power of successful contradiction that 
down to the 1st of July, 1856, the time of making 
the Kansas report, the pro-slavery parly had 
never polled, at any election in the Territory, 
seven hundred legal votes. Gentlemen talk about 
Abolitionists and " emigrant aid societies." Sir, 
of all the freo-State men in Kansas, when I wcs 
there, more than three fourths of them were Kan- 
sas-Nebraska Democrats. And especially is this 
true of those whose course has been most loudly 
condemned. This is true of Lane, Roberts, 
Jenkins, and others. 

Another fact is apparent to every observer. 
A large proportion, probably more than half, of 
the emigrants from Missouri who came into the 
Territory pro-slavery men as actual settlers, have 
become free-State men, and are now among the 
most inflexible opponents of this Leconioton 
swindle. The better feelings of their natures re- 
volted against the fraud and trickery and violence 
practiced, and they remonstrated, protesting that 
Kansasshould bemadeaslave State byfairmeans 
or not at all. They were abused and denounced 
and then, as some of them expressed it, they 
" got on to the fence," and after a while, " come 
clear over" — a process similar to that developed 
in the history of the four Governors. Gentlemen 



6 



talk of the *' Emigrant Aid Society," and I was 
amused at line remarks of the gentleman from Mis- 
sou ri,[iVlr. Anderson,] the other day, on this sub- 
ject, in cnimeciion with the frauds of the 3(Jih of 
March, 1855. Sir, I could have told that gentleman 
the precise number of voles cast at that election by 
" emigrant aid men," sent out during the whole 
four months immediately preceding that election. 
I could have told iiim how many went out under 
the auspices of the society; how many of them 
were women and children; how many men; and 
how many of tliem voted at this election; and 
what their names were. But for the reluctance I 
always feel at interrupting zealous speakers, I 
should have told him; for I was sorry to witness 
those random thrusts with his virgin blade into 
this ofi-assaulied phantom. Right valiantly he 
renewed the assault upon this Q.uixotic wind- 
mill. I could have told him that the whole num- 
ber sent out after the close of navigation in the fall 
of 1854, down to and including the 30lh of March, 
1855, (the day of election,) under the auspices 
of the Emigrant Aid Society, was one hundred 
and sixty-six persons, of whom sixty-nine were 
women and children, and ninety-seven men; and 
of these, only thirty-seven voted at this election, 
and they became actual settlers and had a right to 
vote. Sir, I measure my terms with exact accu- 
racy when I say the number was thirty-seven. 
It was not thirty-eiicht, or thirty-six, or any other 
number, more or less, than thirty-seven. And 
tbe the hundredth time, more or less, this bug- 
year is trotted out to divert attention from, and to 
excuse, palliate, and justify, a complete subver- 
sion of the organic act by an armed invasion of 
five thousand men, under the control of secret 
conclaves, gotten up for the express purpose of 
slavery pro]iagandism. 

Sir, I care nolliing for the emigrant aid societies. 
I never belpngcd to them. I never aided them in 
any way. But, after the most careful examina- 
tion of all the facts, I do not believe it can be 
shown that one single northern man ever went to 
Kansas for the express purpose of voting at any 
election without the intention of settling in the 
Territory. The efioris of the North, so far as 
they appear, were directed to promoting the set- 
tlement of the country by men who sympathized 
with their views, and not to the defeat of the will 
of the actual settlers by spurious votes, or by vio- 
lence. 

At the election held on the 4th of January last, 
an election admitted to be lawful and peaceful, 
at which more votes were polled than have ever 
been given at any other election, this constitution 
was voted down by more than ten thousand ma- 
jority. The Territorial Legislature, who fairly 
reflect the will of a vast majority of the people, 
by a unanimous vote declare the whole tiling is 
the work of a small minority of the people living 
innineteen ofthethiity-eightcountiesonly. With 
the greatest possible solemnity, and in the highest 
forms known to the law, they protest against this 
being the expression of the will of the people of 
Kansas, or its beins; received as her act and deed. 
But why dwi'll longer.-' Amidst the most persist- 
ent, systematic elTorts to stifle inquiry, to thr ottle 
every attempt at investigation, the evidences of 
this wicked and foul conspiracy rise on every hand, 
mountain high. It was so when the committee 
were prosecuting tlieir labor in Kansas in 1856 



Amidst ail the confusion and violence, the frauds 
and trickery, the cunning and treachei-y, the spirit 
of the highest seemed to brood over the surface 
of that vast sea of chaos, and everywhere the ce- 
lestial form of truth was seen rising up from the 
depths beneath — more and more disclosing her 
symmetrical proportions, and asserting her unity, 
dignity, divinity, and power. All effects to crush 
her but hastened the development, until she stood 
fortli telling the one complete, harmonious story 
of a people's wrongs. Sir, from my inmost soul 
I believe the hand of a just God is in this busi- 
ness. He who planted this glorious Republic, 
and has hitherto led us, will fight the battles of 
the oppressed people of Kansas, and, in spile of 
their sneers and their rage. He " will cause the 
wrath" of these usurpers " to praise Him, and 
the remainder of wrath He will restrain." 

My conclusion, then, is, Kansas is not here 
asking admission at our hands; nor does this Le- 
comnton swindle reflect her will; and Congress 
has neither the power nor the riglil to admit her. 
It is to her the emljlem of usurpation, oppression, 
violence, and suffering. It is, for the best of all 
reasons, more odious to her than the " stamp act" 
was to our fathers. 

Notwithstanding all the guarantees of the Kau- 
sas-Nebrasl;a act, giving them the right to self- 
government, as was claimed by the Democratic 
party, they have, in the short period of their his- 
tory, suffered at the hands of Democratic Admin- 
istrations more oppression and tyranny, violence 
and usurpation, than all that the people of the 
whole thirteen Colonies suffered at the hands of 
Great Britain during the whole peiiod of their 
colonial existence. I will take any man, at any 
time, in any place, argument for argument, fact 
for fact, and prove the truth of this statement. 
And such is the uniformity of the distinctive 
marks of tyranny in different ages, that nearly all 
of the grievances so masterly enumerated in the 
Declaration of Independence, apply as cases in 
point to the suff'eritigs of the people of Kansas. 
And, sir, let me tell gentlemen they never can be 
conquered. There is tio power on earth that can 
subdue them. They may be exterminated; but 
subdued, never! Gentlemen must consider this 
question is not v/liether negroes shall be slave.'?, 
but whether white men, Anglo-Saxons, can be 
free. The history of the race furnishes the an- 
svv'er. Besides, fraud, oppression, and violence, 
cannot be made the substrata of the institutions 
of an enduring State. When will men learn this 
plain truth, that I'raud, injustice, and oppression, 
cannot obtain lasting powerovera free people, or 
enduring peace in a republican State.' 

But we are told that southern rights are in- 
volved, and the rejection of the Lecompton con- 
trivance would be a humiliation to tiie South. 

Sir, I wish to say, once for all, no vote or act 
of mine shall ever inflict a known wrong ujion the 
South, or any other section of the Union, or tend 
to their humiliation. So far from feeling hostility, 
I consider their success our success; their glory 
ourglory;their humiliation our iiumiliation — one 
and all the children of a common heritage. 

But I deny that the South, as such, has any 
rights in the premises. Neither has the North. 

The citizens of all sections have the right to 
emigrate to Kansas; and when they become set- 
tlers, are entitled to the rights secured under the 



constitution and the organic act. But these arc 
no longer southern rights, or northern rigiits, but 
Kansas rights. The people, North and South, who 
do not choose to go, have the right to insist that 
the Government of Kansas, shall bo republican t 
in form. Is not this the whole of it? Sir, we are 1 
to look to the rights of Kansas. Every speech i 
echoes the cry, "southern rights," "northern 
rights," and yet none of them tell us what rights 
either the North or South have. It is easy to cry 
out "aggression," "encroachment," but the 
charge is not yet proved, scarcely attempted. If 
any section has the right to set up this cry, it is 
the " West," and not the South or the North. 
Dismiss, then, this false issue, and meet the ques- 
tion upon iis merits. Is Kansas here asking ad- 
mission? Does the Lecompton contrivance ex- 
press the will of her people? The solution of the 
realquestion involves no humiliation to the North 
or the South. A ftilse issue is stated — the humil- 
iation of the South is claimed to be involved, and 
a dissolution of the Union is threatened. As the 
«ld women and young children of the "North" 
have ceased to be frightened at this cry, I need 
not dwell upon it. 

Equally foreign to the real issue is the discus- 
sion of slavery in the abstract. For hours to- 
gether we have listened to labored arguments by 
southern members to prove that slavery is recog- 
nized by the Bible. Have these arguments con- 
vinced anyone in or out of this House? Suppose 
the proposition be true or false: does the one or 
the other prove that the Lecompton constitution 
is the act and deed of Kansas, or that it reflects 
the will of her people? Certainly not. Sir, I do 
not believe this is the proper place to discuss or 
determine the Bible argument of slavery. But, 
since it has been constantly thrust upon us, I 
cannot forbear to introduce here the few brief 
words of another, which, I believe, express the 
sentiments of twenty-nine thirtieths of the peo- 
ple of my district upon the di.scussion of the sub- 
ject everywhere: 

"The spirit of slavery never seeks refuge in the Bible of 
its own aceoril. The horns of the altar are its last resort — 
seized only in desperation as it rushes from the terror of the 
avenger's "arm. Like other unclean spirits, it • hatetli the 
lijiht, neither comoth to the light, lest its deeds should be 
reproved.' Goaded to frenzy in its conllicts witli conscience 
und common sense, denied all quarter, and hunted from 
every covert, it vaults over the sacred inclo<u re, and courses 
up and down the Bible, seekins rest and findin;; none. Tlie 
law of love, glowing on every page, flashes around it an 
omnipresent anguish and despair. It shrinks from the 
haled light, and liowls under the consuming touch, as de- 
mons quailed before the Son of God, and shrieked, 'Tor- 
ment us not !' At last, it slinks away under the types of the 
Mosaic system, and seeks to burrow out of sight among 
their shadows. Vain hope ! Its asylun?. is its sepulcher ; its 
city of refuge, the city of destruction. It flies from light 
i.ito the sun, from heat into devouring fire, and from the 
voice of God into the thickest of his tiiunders." 

Alike inappropriate is the discussion, of which 
we have heard so much, about the balance of power 
between the North and the South. Sir, this fan- 
ciful equilibrium between the North and the South 
has proved the Pandora's box from which have 
sprung sectional strifes and legislative anomalies. 
The idea is as chimerical as it is mischievous. The 
Constitution establishes the elements of power 
under our system. It does not create, but only 
recognizes them. In their nature they were in- 
herent and i7ialie7iable existing long before the 
Constitution. Population is the chief clement of 



power. The number of those to be governed, 
whose consent is requisite to its proper exercise, 
is the measure of the power. By wiiat process, 
then, under this system will you make six million 
of people equal in political power to thirteen mil- 
lion? Nay, if the institution, peculiar to the South 
and so much cherished by her, has in sixty-nine 
years, under the legitimate working of the Con- 
stitution, produced this disparity in numbers, 
what shall hinder it becoming still greater in the 
future, since the stream of European emigration is 
all the time increasing in its volume and force as 
the beneficent character of our institutions are 
becoming more known, and the great enterprises 
and improvements of the day furnish increasing 
employment, and a heartier welcome is extended 
to those who are escaping from the oppression 
of the Old World ? If the South would retain 
power must she not have population ? And can 
the streams of free emigration be turned into the 
slave States? Will the mass of free and slave 
laborers naingle in the same State or community? 
Are not the two systems of slave and (\p.e labor 
antagonistic and hostile to each other? And does 
not the establishment of the one in a Slate as ef- 
fectually exclude the other as would a " wall of 
fire?" Call it prejudice if you will. Call it what 
you please, it exists as a fact, and must inevitably 
work out its results. But for slavery the South 
would have had more population to-day than the 
North, as she has more and richer soil and a 
milder climate. It is not for us to complain of 
her or her institutions. Her course rests in her 
own sovereign pleasure. It is not for us to dic- 
tate or complain of her action. Let her do what 
seemeth her good without any interference from 
without. But if, in the exercise of her own sov- 
ereign will, she still cherishes in her bosom an 
institution that necessarily drives from her the 
very elements of power she so much desires, why 
does she still complain? 

Before the revolutionary war the people of Vir- 
ginia and Georgia, in their primary assemblies, 
complained of the British Government for thrust- 
ing upon them this system, which tended to keep 
out free labor, the mechanic arts, and the great 
elements of healthful growth and prosperity. It 
is not less true to-day. The sacred memories that 
cluster around the names of these glorious old 
States, prevent my speaking of either of them but 
in terms of the profoundest respect. But I am 
speaking of the power of a State and the means 
of its increase. Does any man doubt that but for 
slavery, Virginia would have had forty Repre- 
sentatives to-day on this floor? I make no com- 
I parison in any spirit of hostility; far otherwise. 
! Wlien the Constitution was adopted, the first 
; apportionment was embodied in the instrument 
I itself. By it Virginia had ten members, and New 
i York six. In all the elements of greatness and 
power she far exceeded New York. Once and a 
j half her size, abounding in minerals, but little 
j waste land, a genial climate, and she possessed 
! superior commercial advantages. Norfolk had 
three times the commerce of New York. Less 
I than three fourths of a century have rolled round, 
' and the whole trade of Norfolk scarcely furnishes 
I a unit with which to reckon up the business of 
j New York. Both were slave States. New York 
abolished slavery. Trade and commerce, and the 
I mechanic arts began to thrive, her agricultural re- 



8 



sources have been rapidly developed, and she is 
filled to overflowing with an active, bustling, en- 
terprising, thrivingpopulation,and she has tliirty- 
three members, and Virginia thirteen on this floor. 
It does not concern me, in this connection, to 
dwell upon the evils or advantages attendant 
upon these developments under the one system or 
the other, nor to discuss with gentlemen the ef- 
fects of emancipation in ihe West Indies, or any 
other foreign country. It is the balance of power, 
and the means of preserving it alone, we are con- 
sidering. And emancipation in the northern States 
of this Union would be a more suitable example 
for southern statesmen to consider; especially, if 
the balance of power is what they desire, just 
in proportion as the South has hugged this sys- 
tem of slavery to her bosom, lias its stench re- 
pelled the laboring wliite men from seeking homes 
within her borders, bringing with them the ele- 
ments of power and prosperity to the Stale. Do 
not your own white laborers instinctively recoil 
from every species of labor performed by slaves, 
and thus lead a life of miserable compromise be- 
tween degradation and idleness on the one hand, 
and starvation on the other.' and thus the very 
sources of prosperity and power are dried up or 
palsied. If no more slaves were to be sold toga out 
of those States, is there one single section of land 
in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, or Missouri, 
that is worth more money with any conceivable 
number of slaves on it, than it would be if there 
were not one slave in those States.' I think not. 
But this is no concern of ours. All we ask is, if you 
desirepower,donothugthatto yourbosoms which 
repels the elements of power, by a law asirresist- 
ibleas the law that keeps the planets in their orbits. 

But suppose that a majority of this House and 
of the Senate can be found in the high excitement, 
the utter blindness of the moment, to vote for 
the admission of Kansas on this fraudulent appli- 
cation — suppose you celebrate the nuptials with 
songs and rejoicings. What have you gained by 
going through these mocking forms of law? Pro- 
claim the bans and perform the marriage cere- 
mony, but you will find in the end that you have 
admitted into this family of sister States, not the 
virgin dauglUer of Kansas, happy in her own 
choice and cheerfully yielding her priceless and 
free-born treasures to the alliance she has sought, 
but only a foul and despicable courtesan begotten 
in wickedness and debauched in all her career; 
formidable only in her crime and her impudence, 
and destined to be driven from the soil she has 
polluted, under the execration and the scorn of all 
just men. And what will you have gained by the 
shameful farce .'' A new State to the Union ? By 
no means. For Kansas, in the proper sovereignty 
of her real people, will spurn yourunhallowed em- 
brace. She will warn you away from her sacred 
presence as a virtuous woman would wither, by I 
jier frown, the base miscreant that approaches 
only to insult her. j 

And will you have buried the question anddis- I 



posed of a most serious disturbing subject by 
this great peace measure, as the President would 
blindly and erroneously have us believe.' No, gen- 
tlemen; you have done no such thing. You have 
only aggravated, a thousand fold, the original 
wrong ! Instead of peace, you have incited and in- 
flamed the strife. You have treated the creature of 
five thousand invadersfrom Missouri on the soil of 
Kansas as though it were the lawful child of the 
lawful citizens of Kansas; and as far as your au- 
thority can go, you have invested and installed 
this bastard pretender with all the sovereign pre- 
rogatives and rights of the State of Kansas; v/hile, 
at the same time, you have ignored the existence 
and the will of the real people of Kansas, and dealt 
with them as though they were rebels and traitors. 
And do gentlemen flatter themselves that this 
will bring enduring peace, while every fact and 
every principle involved in it shows, beyond all 
doubt, that it is only marked by fraud and in- 
jOstice from the beginning to the end .' What is 
to be the fruit of such a victory as this.' I ask 
gentlemen to pause and consider it well before 
they reach forth their hands to pluck the trophies 
which they vainly flatter themselves are just now 
within their grasp. 

If it is expected by gentlemen here or else- 
where, that, this act once passed, the strife will 
soon be over, and the people of Kansas will qui- 
etly settle down into acquiescence, leaving their 
usurpers to enjoy the spoils of an unholy triumph, 
they may as well be told at once that no such re- 
sult will follow. They have suffered one outrage 
after another, until forbearance has ceased to be 
a virtue; and nothing but their desire to avoid col- 
lision with the General Government, and to leave 
the way open for the redress of grievances by the 
Federal Congress, had long since prevented them 
from breaking forth with desolating indignation 
on their oppressors. They have waited and borne 
on patiently, still hoping and believing that jus- 
tice would be done them here; they have waited 
to see the closing act of the drama, and are pre- 
pared to meet it in whatever shape it may come; 
peacefully and gratefully, if we will but do them 
simple justice, and still observe the stipulations 
of their organic act; but, if we will not do that — 
if we mean to give them this fraud, baptized by 
Federal action, back again, to shame and outrage 
them — if we mean to force it on them — then there 
is no longer any hope of peace and reconciliation. 
It will " make the infant sinews strong as steel." 
They will do as the fathers of the F^evolution did 
— another Washington will marshal her sons for 
the strife; another Henry will arise to herald the 
purpose of the people, to expose the despotism of 
our boasted constitutional Government, to show 
It has been made the worst of all tyrannies, that 
U has trampled down the most sacred rights of the 
people, that it has denied them every principle of 
-^elf-government, and to proclaim, in a voice of 
•hunder, rolling through the whole land, that 
" resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." 



Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. 



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